Many functions of modern devices in automotive, consumer and industrial applications, such as converting electrical energy and driving an electric motor or an electric machine, rely on semiconductor devices. For example, Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) and Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) and diodes have been used for various applications including, but not limited to switches in power supplies and power converters.
Damages of the perimeter semiconductor region (which is also referred to as ‘chip edge structure’ or ‘termination structure’) of such semiconductor device that is used in one of these exemplarily mentioned applications can lead to a functional deficiency of the semiconductor device itself and, eventually, to a malfunction or a failure of the system in which the respective semiconductor device is used.
Therefore, it may be desirable to keep semiconductor devices exhibiting damages of the chip edge structure from being shipped into the field.
To this end, it is known that a semiconductor device is optically screened before being shipped into the field, so as to be able to detect damages of the chip edge or termination structure of the semiconductor device, i.e., in order to detect damages in the perimeter semiconductor region of the semiconductor devices.
However, such optical screening can be a rather complex task and may require high cost software based inspection tools in order to allow for automatic detection of damages in the perimeter semiconductor region.